Women from the local community in Kabanana West in Chazanga, one of Lusaka’s low-income settlements, queue at a newly opened water point, May 2018.Zambia has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. At least 65% of people live in low-income communities, also known as peri-urban areas, which usually lack sewers. Most low-income families in major towns and cities still rely on privately-owned boreholes, where water is expensive and often contaminated with raw sewage. This means they need to use on-site sanitation services such as pit latrines and septic tanks instead, which can contaminate nearby water supplies; this has a huge impact on the lowest-income urban communities which regularly suffer outbreaks of cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
These peri-urban communities have long struggled with safe water and hygiene practices, and a good enough water supply. Oxfam has been working to provide clean safe water points in Lusaka’s peri-urban compounds like Chazanga in order to help the local community advocate for their rights to clean water and sanitation services.